of sweaters and scarves
by KingPolar
Summary: Staying warm in winter can be difficult, but Zero Two finds a way. Modern!AU


"Haaaah~"

With a forceful exhale into her open hands, Zero Two silently watched as her hot breath, visible as a fog-like mist in the cold weather, slipped through her fingers. She rubbed her hands together, attempting to preserve some of that warmth.

Tilting her head back, she sighed out loud, releasing another small plume of condensation as she idly stared up at the gray sky, a few small flakes of snow still drifting down.

Still no sun.

Zero Two had never been a fan of winter weather, and the lack of the constant source of warmth that was the sun was definitely one of the reasons why. It had also snowed pretty heavily last night, and even the bench she was sitting was still mostly covered in snow.

She grimaced as a particularly violent gust of icy wind rushed by, breezing through her pink hair. As if she wasn't cold enough. Squeezing her eyes shut and hugging herself, she rapidly rubbed back and forth across her upper arms in the hopes of generating some extra heat.

"Here."

Zero Two opened her eyes and looked up, meeting the gentle gaze of her darling.

"I got you something warm to drink," Hiro smiled, offering her one of the two coffees he held in his hands after a short trip to the vending machine.

She gratefully accepted the heated can, sighing in relief as her fingers finally felt warm for once.

"Thank you, darling."

Nodding in response, Hiro took a seat next to Zero Two. Watching as she took a couple tentative sips of the coffee, he frowned when he noticed her shivering.

Hiro unzipped his jacket, smiling a bit at Zero Two's confused look.

"Come on," he grinned as he lifted one side up. "Get over here."

Her eyes brightened. She quickly scooted over, sighing in happiness when Hiro wrapped both his jacket and an arm around her, his warmth enveloping her.

"I love you," Zero Two murmured as she leaned into his side. She shivered in pleasure when Hiro pressed his own coffee against her cheek, the heated can a very much appreciated feeling on her cold skin.

"And I love you," Hiro smiled, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

The two sat in comfortable silence, slowly taking sips from their coffee.

As Hiro finished the last of his coffee, Zero Two had been busy playing with (or rather, inspecting) the sweater he wore underneath his jacket.

"Elastic, huh?" She mumbled under her breath as a plan slowly formed in her head.

Hiro didn't seem to hear and only noticed her strange interest in his clothes.

"Like it? This is actually Goro's, to be honest, but he was nice enough to lend it to me when it started getting really cold a few weeks ago." He explained with a smile. "Something about not having enough- Zero Two?"

The girl had gently turned Hiro to face her. She stared at his confused expression for a moment, before firmly shoving him back, forcing his upper body perpendicular to the bench.

"Z-Zero Two?!" He stuttered in both confusion and (mild) fright as she slowly crawled forward, pushing open his legs. "Wh-what are you doing-?!"

She slipped underneath his sweater, and his confusion only intensified.

As she burrowed forward, Hiro couldn't help but laugh - both at the incredulity of the situation and at how ticklish Zero Two's journey up was.

Finally, her head popped out from the neck of his sweater. Hiro had managed to prop himself up to at least a sitting position during her travels, and could only gawk at the close proximity girl that was straddling him from underneath his own clothing in humorous disbelief.

"Just _what_ are you doing, Zero Two?"

She held a perfect poker-face. "Staying warm."

The two stared at each other for a moment before her stoic facade cracked, and the two lovers descended into intense laughter. Any passerby would've undoubtedly been concerned.

As they slowly recovered from their hysterics, a couple chuckles and giggles still escaping the two, they were suddenly made aware of just how close they really were. Nothing but a few inches of cold air separated the two. (Which was honestly quite impressive, given their current situation. A testament to the stretchiness of the sweater.)

Zero Two was the first to lean forward, and Hiro was more than happy to meet her halfway.

They broke apart after a couple seconds, their shallow breaths sending small quick blasts of condensation into the sky.

She grinned and brushed her nose up against Hiro's, who responded by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her further into his lap.

"Still cold?" Hiro teased, his chin resting on her shoulder.

Zero Two smiled into the crook of his neck. "Not at all," she murmured, placing a soft kiss against his skin.

The two sat in silence, taking a moment to bask in each other's warmth.

A rather sudden realization came to Zero Two after another person walked past while giving them a confused and mildly concerned glance, the third one so far.

"...we could totally be doing this inside where no one would be able to judge us, couldn't we."

"Yep!" Hiro cheerfully replied.

"Not that I care what they think, but…" She leaned back as both arms snaked through the top of the sweater to cup Hiro's face. Pressing their foreheads together and forcing their eyes to meet, Zero Two smirked in a rather predatorial way. "I want to do more than just cuddle…"

He would be lying if he said he didn't find it insanely attractive, yet at the same time, he was entirely unintimidated. "You're going to have to get out from underneath the sweater for us to go home, Zero Two."

Her smirk dropped almost instantly, replaced with quite the adorable pout. "Daaahling," she whined as Hiro laughed out loud.

"Come on, it's time we got home anyway. The others are probably wondering where we went."

She sighed painfully, and slowly began to withdraw out of his sweater with great reluctance. After a couple seconds, she finally popped out, her hair a staticky mess.

Hiro couldn't help the laughter that burst out from his lips, nor could he help it when he laughed even harder as she frowned and shook her head wildly. "Hold still, Zero Two, you're making it worse," he smiled as he reached out, grabbing a bit of snow from an untouched part of the bench and squeezing it between one hand before running his now wet fingers through her hair.

Zero Two pouted, softly shaking her head once again. She then jumped up off the bench and held out her hand for Hiro.

"Let's get going, darling."

Hiro happily accepted the offer but yelped when she pulled harder than he expected, sending him careening right into her open arms.

She grinned down at the disgruntled darling she held and leaned down to place a kiss right on his forehead.

"Zero Two," Hiro complained.

"What?" She replied as innocently as she could.

"Hmph, I guess you don't want to share a scarf."

She had never backtracked so fast in her life. Pulling him to his feet as fast as she could, Zero Two quickly began to pepper his face with rapid little kisses, murmuring apologies between each one.

A laughing Hiro pushed her away, a small blush visible across his cheeks. "Alright, alright, I forgive you."

"Yaay!" Zero Two cheered, throwing her arms joyously into the air.

She unraveled her scarf, hugging her darling close before she rewrapped it around both their necks - she even made sure to make a cute little bowtie at the end! It had to be clear that she and darling were a couple (as if the fact that she was clinging onto him was not a big enough hint).

Taking his hand into her own and intertwining their fingers, Zero Two nodded in satisfaction. "Okay, let's go, darling!"

Hiro nodded, beaming at the grinning Zero Two. "Yes, let's."

* * *

Goro sighed.

"Hiro?"

Hiro looked up from his phone, half a dumpling between his teeth.

"Hmm?"

Goro held up the sweater he had lent to him, the elastic around the neck and waist now stretched far beyond repair. It seemed a couple buttons had even popped off.

"What the hell did you do to my sweater?"

"O-oh, h-haha…" Hiro laughed nervously, eyes shifting back and forth as if looking for an excuse. "Uh, gotta go." He bolted out of the room.

"Wha-?! Hiro, get back here!"


End file.
